It is an interesting twist of irony that the Keystone is shrink-wrapped
as a "security" issue... and just one hair shy of being packaged and
spun as a buffer/buttress against "terrorism." Indigenous Peoples of Konitsaaii Gokiyaa ('Lipan Home Land') have extensive experience and history with this 21st century phase of a longer history of dispossession, deception, and violent domination by those seeking only to serve the interests of the few.

It is important for those who are the targeted, as well as other
critically involved actors, to consider the similar features of the
discourses and rhetoric which the transnational and the state use to condemn these Texas property
owners' lands, and compare them to the discourses and practices that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security used to
condemn 70 miles of lands to construct the violent mega-project:
the Border Wall on the Texas border.

There are important overlaps and intersections that should not be
dismissed lightly, or artificially wrapped into a false rationale of "that is different because we have to protect our border against ____." This is a dangerous fallacy. The border wall could be incredibly useful analytical piece for white 'interior' property
owners in this instance who are fighting a colossal battle to protect their
rights and interests in land within Texas' territorial boundary, in competition against the desires and
alleged 'rights' of a transnational, the elite U.S.-Canadian-Global 1-5% who will benefit, and the supposed
"security" of the "nation." Consider the following:

In the case of the Texas-Mexico Border Wall, over 20 corporations
have profited quite nicely on this immensely destructive project, which exploited the poverty
and political marginalization of Indigenous peoples who are the original
land owners, and whose title underlies and predates the U.S. and Texas for
that matter.

In that case, the majority of the impacted peoples hold
legitimate Aboriginal Title (recognized by the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples--which, btw, was endorsed by the United
States last year), Crown Title, Treaties (for example, the wall
infringes on the Lipan Apache Band of Texas' treaties with Spain,
Mexico, Texas and the U.S.; and on the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo).

The following statement should be critically re-examined, as it is a
useful way to link the way the transnationals use the state to spin and
to deploy the ax to constitutional rights beyond borders (scroll down to paragraph 8):

"He said the company already had 99 percent of the easements it
needed for the Texas segment and was working on snapping up the
remaining holdouts."

In 2007, 2008, and 2009, former US DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff
used nearly identical discourses and rhetoric against property owners
along the Texas border. Indigenous peoples who had clear title to their
lands vis-a-vis arrangements with the Spanish Crown; Hispanic and Latino
private property owners many of whom had their land grant title
confirmed by the first constitutional government of Texas; white farmers
(mostly Euro-American emigrants to the region) whose properties had
been in their families for 304 generations--were all condemned by the
Secretary for the "security" and "protection" of the "nation."

As a result of the vehement resistance by Texas land owners against
dispossession, (across race, class, religion, vocation, and different
historical paths to land ownership--and dispossession...) the Secretary
invented the mega waiver. Remember that?

Section 102 ('mega-waiver') was the provision which instrumentally voided 35 Federal Laws which
effectively made it possible for big government to wipe out legal opposition, delay, and any
possible relief to condemnation. This also obstructed the path towards remedy, redress, restitution, compensation...as
well, which is one of the underlying pillars of the Lipan Apaches' 2009 petition to and hearing before the Inter-American
Commission/Organization of American States--an ongoing investigation of the U.S. violations of international law and human rights conventions against Indigenous land owners.

Who benefitted directly from the mega waivers and the expedited
condemnations? The government contractor corporations, elected politicians, and elite private individuals whose interests they serve. They got millions
expedited and into their bank accounts.

Who benefitted from the
construction jobs? Not locals. Other 'U.S. citizens' who the contractors imported from Other U.S. states and congressional districts, with the approval and complicity of Texas politicians. Remember, the many vehicles with Nebraska license plates which suddenly appeared out of thin air in 2009 and 2010 in Cameron
County, Texas? Locals testified that it was as if an
invasion of non-local and dominantly white 'supervisory' labor converged upon all
the LRG Valley --and were highly 'visible' in local Mexican restaurants as an obvious non-local group?

The transnationals have profited quite nicely from the
give-aways and gates that the majority Republicans opened for large scale dispossession in South
Texas with mega-projects such as the Border Wall and the Keystone on the
premise of "security." "Security" is used to rationalize the
large-scale, overthrow of democratic constitutional rights--and Texas
property law and ownership is the key 'test' in their laboratory. The most recent and yet hyper-censored dispossession in South Texas is related to the yellow-cake uranium exploration in Lipan Apache Traditional Territory.

Building wealth for the elite 1%, on the backs of Texas property
owners--in fact, was designed and architected by Texas Senators
Hutchinson and Cornyn, who have consistently produced legislation and
the means for not only whittling away, but hacking away at Texas
property rights for the "security" of the "nation." In fact, the 35
federal laws that were voided to construct the Border Wall in the Lower
Rio Grande Valley, were never re-instated by President Obama, and
Hutchinson and Cornyn have been instrumental in ensuring that it stays
that way in perpetuity.

I think most folks, who do not have access to anything beyond the
narrow confines of corporate-controlled television, radio, and
mainstream 'news', should be offered more diverse tools to wrap their
heads around these questions: whose nation? what "good" and for whose
benefit? Whose "security"? Certain property owners in
Texas are deemed as violable and rapable--as proven along the 18 foot tall Border Wall. The message of Manifest Destiny 'deep in the heart of Texas' was made explicitly clear by the majority of Texans (Republicans, conservative, white-streamed), that if you are
Indigenous, a woman, an Elder, poor, a farmer, a
pastoralist-subsistence herder, Catholic, refuse to assimilate and critically question the underlying
rationale of the U.S. regime and
goons of the transnationals, you are very likely to be severed of your
land rights in the name of "security."

The best defense is a collective defense. Those currently targeted
could save themselves a great amount of suffering and stress, and save
themselves a huge amount of $$ and precious energy by studying the
arguments against eminent domain, condemnation, and expedited taking ...
as these played out in the LRG Valley. By studying the tactics and
methods deployed by the government and corporations against land owners
in the Lower Rio Grande Valley--and their push back--currently targeted
peoples may be able to alter the debate. The pertinent documents are
all available on the University of Texas School of Law website devoted
to the cases. At
http://www.utexas.edu/law/centers/humanrights/borderwall/

Don't be surprised if suddenly, all the properties along the path of
the Keystone are suddenly found to be the "hiding places" of
"terrorists", "drug lords", "cartels" and "potential threats" because
that is the legal-moral framework that the government used to violently
take the lands from Indigenous nations along the Lower Rio Grande
Valley.

When I say 'violently' I mean that, when the collective action of
hundreds of affected land owners organized significant
resistance--refusing the government access to their lands-- the U.S.
sent in armed personnel, used the presence of "boots on the ground", in
the act of 'visiting' the property owners, one by one, in each community
to enforce the taking of lands. Armed personnel (paid by U.S. tax
payers) are used by the government to tell the targeted peoples that the
constitution no longer exists in the targeted lands. Thank the Patriot
Act for this reality--yea, it will eventually come after you, no matter
what you thought your racial-religious-citizenship-geography protection
buffer is/was. Now, folks along the Lower Rio Grande River and the
Border Wall, are currently debating questions like this:

"It will be interesting to see if the dominant group--white Texans
in the 'heartland'--and big ranchers’ voices are stronger--and if it
will be decided that their property rights (perceived as inviolable and
sacred)--are worth preserving. It will be interesting to see if the
Texas dominant society will oppose the condemnation of those groups'
lands. Why? Because in all their 'public opinions' of 2006 (Secure
Fence Act, etc.) and 2007-2009 (during the construction of the Border
Wall), they made it quite clear that it was 'OK" to use eminent domain
to condemn the Aboriginal Title, Treaty Lands, Crown Grant lands, and
individual private property of the low-income, Indigenous South Texans
who lost land to eminent domain for the "security" of the "nation."

Perhaps the transnationals are now puncturing peoples' fragile conceptions of who is the 'enemy'?

Perhaps it would be an irony, if the most impoverished in Texas (not
coincidentally all the counties of the Texas border are the highest
poverty zones across the ENTIRE U.S....) though not without agency, put
their vote with economic "security" ...
Afterall, that is what the transnationals have already counted on.
Just as they calculated correctly that the majority of non-Indigenous
peoples would not think, but rather would react to a barrage of
anti-terror and 'security of the nation' jingoism which were key factors
in the condemnations along the Texas border.

Interesting juncture, eh?

Finally, I wish to say a heartfelt 'good luck' to those whose lives
are being destroyed by the Keystone-project which is connected to one of
the most violent mass-scale destructive acts on our beautiful planet
Earth. Decolonize Your Mind. If we are all going to go down due to the
extreme disconnect, greed, selfishness, and self-absorption of the 1%
and their 'end game', shall we not work to decolonize the borders of
hate and isolation they have constructed, and instead, work collectively
for dignity?

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Military Operation Architects in Partnership with the 'South Texan's Property Rights Association', whose members are included in photo with McCaffrey. Photo Source:BR McCaffrey Associates LLC, at http://www.mccaffreyassociates.com/pages/photos.htm, accessed February 9, 2011.

"I. PURPOSEA: The Task In June 2011, Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples requested that two senior military officers, Gen. Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) and Gen. Robert Scales (Ret.), develop and recommend a military-style strategy and operational and tactical requirements to secure the Texas portion of the U.S.-Mexico border. He also requested specific information related to the financial, manpower, technology and other resources needed to secure the Texas-Mexico border; and ways in which the roles and resources of U.S. federal agencies could be optimally deployed to facilitate implementation of these recommendations" (15).

"Texas Rangers Lead the Fight

The first principle of Texas border security operations is to empower local law enforcement. Soldiers often say that bad strategies cannot be salvaged by good tactics--- but bad tactics can defeat a good strategy. This saying simply reinforces the truism that no national strategy that seeks to defeat narco-terrorism can be adequately confronted unless tactical units, such as local police and federal border security stations, are properly staffed, resourced, competent and well-led.

"The Texas Rangers lead a cooperative program that brings together a ground, air and marine assault capability. Ranger Reconnaissance Teams are the tactical combat elements in the war against narco-terrorists. Each participating federal, state and local agency voluntarily adds its unique capabilities to the teams. The Texas Highway Patrol acts as an outer perimeter for the Rangers by funneling traffic toward Ranger border positions.Tactical contact teams, deploying along the Rio Grande in small, concealed positions, are able to respond immediately to intelligence from Autonomous Surveillance Platform (ASP) units, DPS and National Guard surveillance helicopters, as well as calls to UCs from local police or citizens. DPS Dive Teams conduct SONAR scans of the Rio Grande and assist in recovery of vehicles and contraband in splashdown areas" (12-13).

LAW-Defense Commentary:

Not coincidentally, State and Federal military strategy on the so-called 'war on terror' will increase endangerment and suffering to humanity in the Texas-Mexico border region, many who are Indigenous peoples--not immigrants--of the region and the Americas.

In the Texas-Mexico border region, it is racism, land dispossession, subjugation, exploitation effected through organized armed violence, militarization and militarism which havenegatively affected human suffering, disease, poverty, hunger, health, biodiversity, and cultural revitalization. The accumulative violent impacts of war and armed conflict has impacted Indigenous peoples which in the above scenario are abstracted and distorted as minor factors. Once again, a resource war is being waged and Indigenous peoples are being crafted as 'suspects', 'expendables', and 'foreigners' in our own lands, and violence is key to the colonizers' war.

The questions arewho are the privileged 'local' decision-makers architecting the use of a military assault against the least privileged and most culturally, socially, economically, and legally disadvantaged communities along the Texas border?And, who are the so-called 'local' interest groups colluding at the table with the State and Federal government to destroy lands, cultures, families, heritage, histories, and existences? And, to what extent is their an entanglement or intersection between this war plan and uranium mining, oil extraction, water privatization, and mega-projects (border wall, highways, rail systems) in the region? What are the social relations at the decision-making table?

Those responsible for the architecting of neo-ethnocide are enabling the U.S. and Texas military industrial complex to 'throw-away' the Indigenous communities along the Texas border deemed retrograde, 'savage', in the way of elites' development. The use of massively organized violence, and the construction of Indigenous peoples as 'suspects', and as expendable in the war against Mother Earth, i.e. colonialist 'progress', is a genocidal movement.

LAW-Defense denouncesthe "Texas Border Security: A Strategic Military Assessment." It is the current-day extension of the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny into the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and a revisiting of the massacres and removals experienced by our foreparents. It is a template for genocide.

Lipan Apache Women Defense (LAW-Defense) is an Indigenous Peoples' Organization. It supports local capacity building, documentation, research, and investigations related to Indigenous peoples' rights affirmed in the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ratified in 2007, and adopted by the United States on December 16, 2010.

LAW-Defense documents and advocates for the rights of the indigenous originarios, Nde', and Nakaiiye-Nde lineal clan members of Lipan Apache peoples who are the Real People: original rancheria communities along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo.

Context:Lipan Apache women of El Calaboz Rancheria took up the cultural, social, legal, political, and economic protection against armed and forced dispossession of Indigenous Peoples' lands by the U.S. D.H.S. et al.

We organized community support, empowerment and decision-making processes to protect integral and inherent Indigenous relationships to lands, sacred sites, burial grounds, and biodiversity in the face of a series of armed and forced takings of local peoples' lands, as a direct consequence of the implementation of the U.S. Secure Fence Act of 2006.

Indigenous peoples from the El Calaboz Rancheria lineal clans stood firm against the U.S. possession of traditional lands. Securing our lands, resources, livelihoods, ecologically-based economies, and way of life are at the heart of the matter for Indigenous Peoples of the Lower Rio Grande, who continue to struggle against settler and state violence stemming from colonization by Spaniards in the early 1520s, and subsequent waves of settlement, development, and privatization by Euro-American colonizers.

The United Statesand Nde' Customary PerspectivesIn U.S. law, there are significant legal fictions which assume the religious and racial superiority of Euro-American settler juridical systems above those of indigenous peoples inherent and inalienable rights to self-governance, lands and territories. The following models entail excessive aggression and armed violence, which were used to dispossess lands illegally through force and coercion against Lower Rio Grande River communities:1. Eminent Domain, 2. the Declaration of Taking, and 3. Condemnation Proceedings. Impacted Nde' and Nnee Peoples of the Texas-Mexico Border--Beyond the Doctrine of DiscoverySpecifically impacted Indigenous people, the Lipan Apache, Jumano-Apache, and Mexican-American land grant peoples whose ancestors' presence in the hemisphere pre-date European conquest.

The Lipan Apache Women Defense organizedlegal, social, cultural and political resistance to U.S. militarized violence, abuse of state power, and abuse of the Rule of Law

This work raises critical questions and organizes forums for serious debate, participation and collective decision-making about Indigenous inherent Aboriginal Title, and the State's sovereignty.To date, the U.S. border wall project has been unsuccessful in El Calaboz Rancheria, Lower Rio Grande Valley, South Texas because it has not achieved its goal: genocide and erasure of Indigenous peoples, presence, history, creativity, and resilient spirit.

By foregrounding community organization, documentation, research and education the Lipan Apache Women Defense has strengthened the Indigenous People's resolve to persist in Indigenous, U.S. and International law systems to restore democratic principles and rule.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR EFFORT to PROTECT INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS ALONG THE BORDER AND BORDER WALL. (FEBRUARY 2012)

Contested Rights--"Independent Indians" between the State and U.S. Development and Expansion (Map permission: Dr. Brian DeLay, Historian, in "Independent Indians and the U.S. Mexico War", The American Historical Review.